Embracing the Human Experience

“Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.” ~Karen Kaiser Clark

Loneliness.  Fear.  Stress.

These are words that come to mind when faced with a new situation.  Many people cower in fear and refuse to face these changes. I recently have moved from a medium-sized town to a huge city.  Adjusting to a new environment is hard to describe.  You see people you don’t know.  New grocery stores.  A new gym.  However, perspective is a worthwhile teacher and I know I have come to this new location for a higher purpose.

So what should I do? Hide in my apartment and sink into depression and despair, lamenting over my new home.  Or do I accept it?  Take it in stride? Embrace it?

Our lives are filled with both joyous and devastating events.  We may experience the birth of a child and the death of a loved one in the same week.  Both experiences take adjustments, although death will also be filled with grief and sadness.  New environments take responding to.  New experiences demand that you focus on them, fight through them, and accept them as they are.

Recently I have been trying to connect on Facebook with former friends and many of the students that I taught for the last 21 years. In the past, I noticed that I tried to send requests to those that were just like me (white, male, heterosexual, Christian).  Recently I decided the send requests out to all sorts of friends, students and acquaintances (black, female, gay and non-Christian).  Do I appreciate their perspective or necessarily agree with everything they say or believe?  Of course not.  But to embrace the human experience I want to see it from their eyes.  I want to understand how they think and feel, so I can empathize with their experiences as well.

For some reason we think that people are different in a big city, but I have experienced so many nice people already.  They say “excuse me” at the grocery store, they talk to you at the park, and they move things for you at your new job without grumbling.  They experience life like you do.  They put their clothes on the same way.  They laugh and cry and experience pain at the loss of the things they care about.  In the end, humans are much more alike than we are different.  I am a Christ-follower and I am not ashamed of that, but I want to understand the perspective of these who are not. 

The bottom line is this:  embrace life.  Embrace its joy and its pain.  Embrace the sadness and the loneliness.  Embrace the unique perspectives of those who are not the same as you.  Celebrate the accomplishments of those around you and cry with those who mourn. As much as I want to run a marathon, climb a mountain, or win a Nobel prize, very few individuals accomplish those things.  I can, however, experience life to its fullest by embracing the triumphs as well as the obstacles that come my way.

 

I have chosen this new life as a college professor, so I must experience the pain of being away from ones I love and adjusting to a new environment.  To do this, I must trust in the strength God has given me.  The only alternative is to not reach the potential that I know I have inside me or to check out of life and chose not to change and grow.  Personally, I chose to grow, struggle through the uncomfortable feeling of new things, and find that potential. 

Failure is always a possibility, but I will never know triumph unless I embrace the possibility of failure, which means accepting my own frail humanity. 

Embrace the experience of living. It is worth the effort!

A Brave New World

“Some may say I’m a dreamer…but I’m not the only one…”~ John Lennon

Very soon I will depart for a new chapter in my life.  A new world that is scary and exciting at the same time: The Metro-Plex.  After five years of blood, sweat, and tears I recently finished my doctorate and I will begin my first job in higher education at the University of Texas at Arlington.  I go from teaching at a high school of 600 to teaching at a college of over 30,000.  I have an apartment lined up and my office is being prepped for my loads of books, pictures and diplomas.  The nervousness and butterflies have started and the realization of the magnitude of this change in my life.  But with nervousness comes great excitement.  My fear does not stem from the feeling of wondering if I am making the right move. I have wanted to work in academia for over 20 years.  I have 100% assurance that I can do the job and I have been “called” into this second career at this stage of my life.

Some feel the call to ministry, others to foreign diplomacy or politics, social work, medicine, or military service. Some feel the call to teaching and make that their life’s work.  My calling involves teaching, but it is much deeper.  I have the gift of encouragement and a love for science that was reflected in my 21 years of teaching.  I want to share that gift with the current and future teachers of science and mathematics, the gatekeepers of our nation’s students who will maintain our innovation and help us persevere as one of the most powerful countries in the world.  I want to help inspire students to become the future scientists, astronauts, and doctors that we will need for the next generation.

I also am for the underdog.  I always have been.  If I had lived in Europe in World War II I would have been killed for helping the Jews.  I would have been a staunch abolitionist calling for an end to slavery during the Civil War.  I would have marched with the women who demanded the right to vote.  Finally, I would have helped sustain the civil rights movement of the 1960’s with great fervor. But those times have passed.  How can I make a difference right now? I still support the rights of the underdog and the downtrodden.  In the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), that primarily includes females and minorities.  I could write for days about why they need advocates at every level, but there is not room in this blog.   Let me just say that there is a great need for America to produce more engineers and scientists and we need to develop them from within our own schools.  

I sometimes feel I have no power to make changes in racism and discrimination in America, although I long for a way to get involved.  So I have chosen this field to enable female and African-American scientists, engineers, and STEM teachers to find their calling and make a difference.  My gift to them is empowerment:  the ability to prosper in a field that is exciting, lucrative, and beneficial to the world in numerous ways.  Empowerment, hope, and encouragement through education is my way of changing the face of racism and discrimination for the underdogs of our world.

Will I change the world as much a march, a rally, or a picket sign? I am not sure, but I know I am doing my part to help the next generation build a better world.  This is my life’s mission…my calling.

Maybe I am naïve, idealistic, or a dreamer, but I have a feeling I’m not the only one.  Pray for me as I enter this brave new world of opportunity and change. 

How to Know if You are a Zombie

“Did you exchange…a walk-on part in a war…for a lead role in a cage?” 

~Pink Floyd from Wish You Were Here

Humans will never fly.

No one will ever climb Mt. Everest.

It is impossible to run less than a 4 minute mile.

We will never make it to the moon.

We will never find a cure for polio.

Mars is out of our reach.  We should just forget it.

There is a show that I occasionally watch, but usually just while I am channel surfing.  It’s called “The Walking Dead” and I know some people are completely addicted to it. Sometimes I stay and enjoy the story and plot, but when the “walkers” show up, I am on the move to find something like Andy Griffith to clean out my short term memory.  For some reason I stayed on a certain episode today. For devoted fans, it was the one where they entered the Centers for Disease Control and found out the nature and origin of the disease.  As a science teacher (one that actually attempted a unit on zombies), I was intrigued at how the zombies came to be.  Without getting too deep in the science, let me just say that the disease or virus kills the individual.  But some part of their brain “awakens” after a few hours. It is mostly the brain stem, the part that controls unconscious actions.  Thus the walkers are, in a sense, alive but not really.  They function only to move and feed and are exactly what the title suggests:  walking dead.  The only way to kill them again is to destroy that part of the brain.

What intrigued me most was not the brain science, but the attitude of the individuals who were trying to survive.  The CDC was wired to explode in a ball of fire when its power reserves ran out, and the sole surviving CDC employee was ready to go up in flames and take the survivors with him.  The survivors knew that outside were starving zombies, but for some reason they could not buy into the idea of choosing a quick and easy death to avoid the conflict outside.  I left the house for a while to clear my head of zombie images. After walking and jogging at the track, I started to understand the strength, perseverance, tenacity, and courage of the human spirit. 

A teacher fighting a diagnosis of cancer after being told there is no hope.  An athlete pushing herself for the next race or a faster time or a new goal. A college student barely scraping by with a part-time job and mounting college loans to become a doctor.  A mountain climber reaching the top of Mt. Everest and saying “What next?”  An astronaut taking “one small step for mankind.”  A paraplegic striving to walk again even though science says it’s impossible.

As the Pink Floyd song describes, there are many individuals who choose to live their lives in a cage and never strive to get out.  It is comfortable in the cage; no unknowns to fear. “Just give me my food and water and TV remote and make me comfortable and I will be just fine.” All the while, the key to the cage hangs nearby, ready to secure their freedom.  Only a few brave individuals choose to open the door and take their part in this war called life.  When you enter a war, there is great possibility of death at every turn. But there is also the key--the key to independence.  As I write this on July 4^th, I will not forget the ones who fought in many wars to gain our freedom. They chose to truly live to give us life, sometimes at the cost of their own.

So in the end, it is important to check yourself.  Are you in the multitude of the walking dead? Or are you in the minority… in the small but dedicated group that chooses to strive for more against all odds.  As long as there is hope, there will always be a human spirit that seeks to climb the next mountain, cure the next disease, or meet the next goal.

Unlock the cage.  Join the land of the living.

Legacy

Springs of hope well up and give me peace to face this journey

For the purpose we were placed here--a bigger meaning clouded by uncertainty and a lack of confidence.

The place and time for our legacy is at hand---were we made for something bigger than ourselves?

The portrait unfolds before us--a mess of colors and shades and irregular lines

An unfinished portrait that waits for each stroke to add meaning to emptiness and order to disarray.

Is it a mystery for us to solve or a door rising in front of us--what is our mark on this calendar?

I stand in awe  as the purpose is revealed and all is made clear--there is a time and place for all things great and small.

We are not an accident--we are the legacy that we leave--the footprints and purpose of a life well-lived.

Originally Written 3-28-10

That's a Good Question?

For this blog, I simply present a series of questions.  I don't need or expect an answer from anyone. They are only to provoke serious thinking. A few of my Facebook friends have contributed a question or two, including my son Caleb. These questions are intended to make you think and to cause your brain to hurt. You are welcome:-)

1. Does suffering mean we are not in God's will, or is it a normal part of everyone's life?
2. Why are Christians afraid to speak to those who are different from themselves, including homosexuals, Muslims, Jews, agnostics, and atheists?
3. Is driving a big SUV or throwing a piece of trash out of your car window a sin?
4. Why is it so easy for people to stereotype others and believe stereotypes?
5. Which are bigger sins: (1) alcoholism and drug abuse or (2) gluttony and obesity?
6. Why are people so scared to meet in the middle on important social issues, instead of always being polar opposites and not budging from their positions?
7. Is it fair that two people are in a car accident and one is taken and the other one lives?
8. Is it reasonable to pray to God for your favorite sports team or for that big promotion at work when you pass a homeless person and ignore them on the way to see that team or go to your job?
9. Why are so many people of different faiths all 100% sure they are going to heaven, but they also are all 100% sure that ones in religions other than their own are not?
10. Why do we tell people all they need is Jesus to hold them, when they are lonely, abused, or sad and begging for the touch of another human being?
11. What happens to people after this life who have never heard the gospel because of geographic isolation, their government's policies, or a rigid social structure?
12. Can creationists find common ground with evolutionists in the area of environmental policy, sustainability and stewardship?
13. Can Christians and non-Christians work together for causes that are mutually beneficial to humanity and the good of society?
14. Is the gospel hard to fathom because of its simplicity; in other words could it really be that easy?
15. If the Earth was not created in exactly 7 24-hr days, does that mean that the creation of our world is any less amazing?
16. Is it possible to show your faith through being the best at whatever you do and pushing yourself to improve every day?
17. If God made man in His own image, how can any Christian call themselves a racist?
18. Were the Beatles oversimplifying life when they sang "All You Need is Love," or is love really the glue that holds the world together?
19. If Jesus returned on a Sunday morning, would he appear in the mega-church or in the streets talking to the homeless?
20. Even though we have amazing technology, are we any more connected to people than we were 100 years ago?
21. Since all cultures have music in common, could it be used as a tool to unite all cultures?
22. Is it immoral that the United States throws away millions of pounds of food every day, but we have millions of people starving in other countries?
23. Is the quantity of life (years of life) any more important than the quality of life (life in your years)?
24.  Is perfectionism ever possible; in other words is it possible for anyone to be 100% perfect in all areas of their life?
25. Why does life always produce more questions than answers?